"Windows 8 build 7850.0.winmain_win8m1.100922-1508 contains a number of references to a brand new feature in Windows: Portable Workspaces. Microsoft will allow Enterprise customers to create USB storage driven copies of Windows. 'Portable Workspace is a Windows feature that allows you to run Windows from a USB storage device', notes Microsoft in its description of the feature inside Windows 8." So, yeah, something we've been waiting for in Windows since, well, forever. Also, push notifications, a screenshot tool and a new webcam application have been discovered as well.

I think it's probably going to use the bootable USB stack option from Windows Embedded 7.

I use the Windows 7 embedded version for a couple of utilities and some easy data recovery stuff... it moves from one piece of hardware to another pretty smoothly, although there are a few reboots or BSODs when moving from one chipset to another... intel to nvidia, etc... the basic drivers are mostly there and so long as windows has drivers for your NIC, windows update usually grabs the rest. I usually only have to install drivers manually for weird stuff, mostly different raid controllers.

This isn't intended as flame bait so I hope it's not taken that way but why would you bother using Windows embedded for your recovery tools if you have to worry about graphics and chipset drivers?
There are hundreds of Linux recovery distros out there and the good think about Linux is very rarely do you need to load any additional drivers. Surely there must be at least one that fits your needs?

probably laziness on my part. Is there a quick alternative to chkdsk to repair an ntfs filesystem or check for bad blocks. how about accessing shadow copies or in the extremely irritating event that I run into a windows based software RAID, what's the repair process from linux?

I actually do have usb installs in my desk for windows, linux and osx,, so it's not a matter of trying to do all things with windows... it's more of a pick the best(or, quickest) tool for the job thing.

I don't know about him but I use an XP liveCD at the shop because it has the ability to use all the tools that Linux CAN'T, such as repairing the registry, activating system restore, etc. plus while there are AV programs that run on Linux they frankly suck, I'd much rather have my MalwareBytes along with Comodo and Stinger.

That said while the author "may have been waiting for this forever" he obviously isn't much of a geek because we've had these things for..well forever. Before my XP Live I had one based on Win2K, and before that I had a cool Win98SE I ran on a CF card. It really isn't hard, it is just a few reg tweaks and the like, and there are plenty of tutorials out there. Just look up "Make your own WinPE disc" and the same steps apply for USB, most will even tell you if there is anything you need to change for USB.

Personally I'll stick with my LiveCD. by loading all of Windows into RAM it makes it fly for repair work, and if you need to surf from a possibly compromised machine you don't have to worry thanks to it being read only media. CDs are cheap so I just update it every couple of months or so and voila! All I do is boot, run updates on the AVs, and I'm ready to work!

You can even make an XP gamer PC in a box if you want to spend the time, but having all the GPU drivers is a bit of a pain. I had a friend who did it back in the Win9x days to carry his games on CF between his parents which were living on opposite sides of the country. He was happy and it worked well for him. So it isn't like it is that big a whoop, this just means you can call MSFT and somebody will support you...if you can stand the muzak on hold that long that is.